Education on Here and Now

I support consolidating districts to save money and reduce such varying differences between districts - student programs, teacher salaries, etc.

ELL students also get varying degrees of services - some districts offer bi-lingual as an option - other districts essentially drop the ELL student in a classroom and leave it to the classroom teacher to figure it out. I know districts offer support and classes for teachers to learn methods to educate these students. But it is still unfair to these students, when they could live in a different area and get a "fuller" program. I know this is a parent choice.

What is the scoop on ELL test scores and NCLB? This was in the news a few weeks ago -something about Tom Horne saying there was some kind of understanding to not incluce the scores of students here the first 2 or 3 years.

It is pretty much agreed upon that to learn a language and use it in an academic setting takes between 3-7 years. These students become orally fluent then are expected to pass grade level tests in 3 years. I agree that they should take the grade level test, but a different scoring or data keeping needs to be in place for these students.

I also realize that some of these issues come from NCLB, not just Arizona. And I totally agree that students should be learning English as quickly as possible.

I am a teacher in a large, central Phoenix Elementary School District. Please do not use my last name on air. Thanks.

As a happily retired secondary mathematics teacher of 30 years, with respect to the current shortage of teachers, I have a couple of questions to put forth:

1. Why would anyone enter a profession in which the starting salary after taxes and retirement contributions, not to mention school loan payments, is not large enough to rent a decent apartment and buy a car let alone aspire to home ownership?

2. What do you think is causing the mass exodus of experienced teachers into retirement so fast that the Arizona State Retirement System is having difficulty keeping up with the number of applications?

Anyone who complains that money is not the major issue facing education in Arizona is either tragically misinformed or pushing some sort of political agenda. Per-capita spending on education is just about the lowest in the nation. That's a fact! Anyone who claims otherwise is employing smoke and mirrors to deny the reality of the situation.

May I suggest a refresher course in basic economics for all those in Arizona involved in education policy.

I have worked in Arizona's public schools for eight years. I choose to be here because I want to help children, help society, help the future. I survive overcrowded classrooms with children from all different backgrounds, classes, and language abilities. I make it through government officials, many of whom have never worked in a school, telling me how to do my job. I persevere despite being physically hurt and mentally exhausted. I am expected to teach as well as clothe, feed, counsel, and love my students. And I do. I wonder, however, where parent/family resposibility come in, as it seems it is all but forgotten.

I believe the purpose of education is to teach children how to learn. I also worry that too often we stifle children's natural curiosity in the public education system.

I have mixed feelings about all day kindergarten, but I was shocked to hear your guest mention needing a preschool program to boot. Where does this push to put younger and younger children into formal education stop?

I feel like the education system is being used too often as a daycare for busy parents instead of a place to teach children how to learn. School officials seem to only strengthen this tendency.

I feel that all charter schools should be closed and the millions this state spends on them should be given and spent on the public schools for classrooms, salaries, etc.

One of the largest groups of educated people on the planet are teachers. They are THE child development and learning specialists yet they are never consulted regarding the needs of children and reforming education. My fellow colleagues complain endlessly about the stressful and dehumanizing conditions that exist in learning environments as a result of the response to NCLB (children are now data points, teaching to tests, scripted curriculum, etc). What will it take to thrust society’s most important vocation into a valued profession?

Regarding the issue of salaries for teachers:

Recently Pinal County was able to raise the starting salary for corrections employees to $38,000 and a private corrections company raised their starting salaries to over $40,000.

Is there something wrong with this picture?

So many districts. So many high salaried administrative positions. We all agree that lack of funding is a major problem. So follow a majority of the available money for education into the pockets of too many superintendents and assist superintendents Other states have consolodated school districts. Why can't we?

How do you feel about the Teach for America program in Arizona?

1)As a first year teacher in Phoenix I earned 25 % less than I did at a Charter School in the East Valley the very next year. This suggested to me that there is likely a great deal of waste going on in the districts in Arizona. I know that the district that I taught in actually paid their starting janitors better than their starting teachers.

2)All day kindergarten is not a panacea for our poor early education problems. There are several children who will do well to stay home with parents for half of a day and attend a kindergarten that actually has a learning program that is more than playing.

3)Most Arizona schools seem to lack a comprehensive fluid curriculum that builds on itself each year in each of the subject areas. I have observed that it is common for AZ districts to have very low grade level standards and almost no consistency in teaching methods ,techniques, or curriculum across the grades. The results are that each teacher spends lots of class time each year teaching their students class routines as well as concepts they may or may not have learned depending on which teacher they had the year before. If each school or district had classroom processes, rules, and techniques that were constant across the grade levels there would be better discipline and more time for actual learning.

4) Arizona schools are so focused on ESL or poorly performing students there seems to be little to challenge intelligent children in the elementary grades.

My sister Linda was part of the curriculum development that led to Horizon and my nephew Max attends the school. It is fabulous. No child is left behind when a school is as creative as Horizon.

I called in with a comment, but had only a few seconds in which to pose it and did not fully explain the situation. For many years, the U.S. military has used a plan to educate physicians with the proviso that the physician obligates to serve a specified period of time in the military as "payback." Considering the unemployment rate and the current issue of trying to get more children to complete at least high school, perhaps an investment in their future along the lines of what the military has done might prove an added incentive and beneficial in the long run.

Because of the high amount of high school dropouts not only at a state level,but at a national level as well, why isn't there education reform concerning the requirements for a high school diploma. We give the same diploma to an immigrant student going on to do menial work as we would to our college bound student going off to the university. Must they all take Algebra and read Shakespear?

As a public school teacher and parent, I was nauseated by Horne's celebration of a federal court decision that will TAKE FUNDING AWAY from Arizona's children. How backwards can a scenario be? Has the man gone mad? It's time for a change.

http://www.williamsforarizona.com/

As long as the teacher unions have a stranglehold on the American public education system that clings to immutable pedagogical principles instead of concentrating on knowledge of the discipline being taught, all concerned are just spinning their wheels.

When you have Alfie Kohn writing books about how homework is harmful to the fragile psyche of students is it any wonder Americans have no confidence in their public school system even if they expect it to be a free daycare center for their kids.